Six 'Caps called up to Canadian U-17 national team

The Canadian Soccer Association announced on Thursday that six Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency players have been called up to Canada’s men’s U-17 national team for an upcoming training camp running from February 5 to 15 in Sunrise, Florida and Costa Rica.

Featured on the roster are Residency goalkeeper Marco Carducci, defender Alex Comsia, midfield pair Kianz Froese and Marco Bustos (pictured), and strikers Matthew Chow and Jordan Haynes. Carducci, Froese, Comsia, Haynes and Bustos were last called up to the U-17 team in December for a 10-day camp in the United States and Panama. Prior to that, all six players were previously called up to in September 2012 to take part in the 2012 AGS Cup in Spain.

Chow, from Vancouver, and Comsia, from North Vancouver, both previously took part in the BC Soccer Provincial Team program and the National Training Centre program. Before joining Whitecaps FC, Chow played with Fusion FC in the EA SPORTS BC Soccer Premier League.

Canada will train for five days in Florida before heading to Costa Rica for a pair of friendly matches against the Costa Ricans on February 12 and 14 respectively.

For U-17 head coach Sean Fleming, the upcoming camp represents an opportunity to make some final tweaks before the team takes part in the 2013 CONCACAF U-17 Championship in Panama in April – which serves as the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 beginning in October.

“This will be our last camp before the CONCACAF Championship,” said Fleming. “We look forward to a pair of great matches in Central America against Costa Rica.

“This will be an opportunity for us to make some final changes and improvements; and focus on building the team’s chemistry ahead of the qualifiers in April.”